:^, 



< o 



%^, 



l^. \./^ :V 






iiM;^?^'* 



<^./v> 



^'^^^^v ^<^^ 






O^ ".,.' ^^ 



^^ .'^*^'. '^, .^^ ^^^^^ 






i* 



ha 



"o *•'■« 

-7- 



<. 






<J^ O « 



v^ 



r:. 



» Yyy/7 






'?\. O H 9 

V'<. 






'^:/. V 



^■ 



&, Or • ^ 






Ancient Favings of Pern aq aid 

By J. ff. CARTLAND. 



Copyrighted, 1899, by J. H. Cartland. 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



1 



..».,J! 



|-- ^%mM 






<:^'^ 

C^*^ 



''/',, 



twuoo^*4S» wfeptwfe^^ 



42170 



/■v,'-- ifii t 







SIDEWALK OF ANCIENT PAVINGS. 







ANCIENT PAVINGS. 



Ancient Pavings of Pemaquid. 



Mystery of — Extent of — Fine workmanship — Protection of the 
pavings — Why so little can be exhibited — Cobble and flat- 
stone paving — Depth beneath the soil — How has it become 
buried — Evidence of Mr. James Partridge and his brother — 
First discovery by ploughing — Evidence of Capt. L. D. 
McLain, J. B. Fitch and others — Digging up one of the 
paved streets — First indicated by stunted vegetation during 
drought — Keport of Maine Historical Society of August 
25th and 26th, 1869. 

Green is the sod where, centuries ago, 

The pavements echoed with the thronging feet 
Of busy crowds that hurried to and fro, 

And met and parted in the city street; 
Here, where they lived, all holy thoughts revive, 

Of patient striving and of faith held fast; 
Here, where they died, their buried records live; 

Silent they speak from out the shadowy past. 

M. W. Hackelton. 

^^HE greatest mystery of all the relics found at old 
Vi^ Pemaquid within the last century are her wonderful 
and extensive pavings, beyond the reach of any recorded 
history yet brought to light, as to their origin, and yet 
showing where the people have left them as originally 
laid, the best specimens of that kind of work done with 
natural stone that I have ever seen. The extent and work- 
manship which I have been able to examine a portion of, 
in three diflferent localities, two on the east and one on the 
west side of the river, indicate the settlement of a people 
well advanced in civilization. 



4 

Having heard much about the paved streets before I 
commenced investigations here I have taken much pains to 
obtain correct information concerning the history as far 
back as possible and with the time and means at my dis- 
posal to examine all that has been exposed during the last 
decade. 

As soon as my health would permit after coming here, 
I began excavations and work on a cottage to cover the 
pavings and preserve the relics found. Mr. Partridge 
kindly showed me a convenient spot and gave me the free use 
of it. " But" said he, speaking from his past experience, 
"it will be no use for you to uncover it unless you can 
protect it with a building for the relic hunters will carry 
away every stone you uncover unless you protect them." 

I did not have the funds to pay for a very elaborate 
building; but after some delay put up a structure '12 x 15 
feet, and one story, using the paving for the floor and on 
shelves placed relics and curiosities that were gathered 
here, forming a sort of a museum and named it the " Pav- 
ing Cottage." I could only exhibit a small piece some 
10 X 12 feet square, as the platform on which people stood 
to view it with rail in front to keep them from going on to 
it, covered a part from view. 

This was not satisfactory to me or all of my visitors, 
rather a small exhibit where so much had been claimed and 
some would naturally say, " Well they might have laid 
that some time in the night to have it to exhibit." But I 
knew that there was more of it joining what I had on 
exhibition, for by having a narrow trench dug at right 
angles from the fine cobble-stones toward the fort foun- 
dations I found paving extending that way thirty-three feet 
with a good water course and curbstone on the outer edges. 
This was of flat stones filled in with some cobbles from the 
shore to make it all compact. 



5 

I finally got permission of the heirs of Mr. Partridge, 
he having died in 1888, to uncover more of the paving and 
I then had the building moved to the northern edge of it 
and enclosed it with a fence and having a raised platform 
over it. This gives visitors a good opportunity to view 
and examine both kinds of stone work. So we have now 
on exhibition what appears to be a short section of a street 
about ten feet above high water mark, leading down a fine 
easy sloping field toward a small beach, an inbent line ot 
the harbor shore, a pretty place to bathe and where the 
children love to play and build forts of the fine white sand, 
in summer. 

The larger stones form what we term the main street, 
which is thirty-three feet in width including the gutters, or 
water courses. The finer work of cobble-stones evidently 
taken from the beach near by is eleven and one-half feet 
wide. The longer cobbles were selected and placed across 
the sidewalk on lines two feet and one-half apart, then the 
space filled in with smaller ones. One row is laid diag- 
onally as if to form the corner of a square yard, and it 
might have been thus fancifully done because it was the 
front yard paving of some former mansion ; no prettier 
place could have been found along^^the shore, and it was in 
close proximity to the fort. The other part we found to 
be laid in sections, when we got it swept ofi^", for no one can 
see the fine workmanship until the seams are cleared of 
soil and all swept ofl", because the uneven stones could not 
be laid level like flat ones. Unobserving people would 
pass over that exposed by the plough because the plough 
can go no lower than the tops of the highest stones, leaving 
all others entirely covered with soil. 

All this work was done systematically for I found by 
measurements that the larger paving sloped from the center 



either way to the gutters which are nicely laid with selected 
stone for the curbing and finer cobbles for the center all 
compactly placed, and served to drain both parts of the 
pavings, which were found to be twelve inches beneath the 
soil at the center, and fifteen at the edges. That is not a 
great depth compared with volcanic burials of ancient 
streets or localities that have the wash of running water ; 
but for this locality it seems deep, being on a nearly level 
field and in other places on the very highest part of the 
peninsula. 

At first I thought it might have been caused by de- 
cayed vegetable matter which had, year by year for cen- 
turies, accumulated there but I gave up that theory when I 
found it was covered with rich soil well mixed with coarse 
and fine gravel. It is now thought to be the work of 
angle or earth worms and that theory has some foundation 
from the fact that every spring and fall they throw up the 
soil between the cobbles so that we have frequently to 
sweep it up and take it away to prevent the stones from 
being completely hidden from view. 

This corresponds with experiments made by Prof. 
Darwin some years ago with a piece of board which he laid 
flat on the soil in his garden ; the worms soon covered it 
from view with soil which they brought to the surface. 
Few people can realize the amount of work those little 
earth worms do unless they study their habits. 

Mr. Partridge's Evidence. 

As we walked up the field from the shore where the 
cottage now stands Mr. Partridge said, " I have traced the 
paving up through this field by ploughing and digging to 
the road ; and from there on to where the gates of the forts 
were located in front of the old house, then out to the 



burying-ground. I have tried several times to plough 
them out in that field but found them so large that the only 
way to get rid of them was to dig them up and haul them 
away. Some years ago a gentleman from Bangor, Maine, 
came here and stopped several weeks making surveys and a 
plan of the pavings found here. He was an invalid and I 
used to have to help him out of bed in the morning." I 
could not get any information about this person on the 
results of his work as Mr. Partridge had forgotten his 
name. 

J. Reed Partridge, a brother of the above named 
James, now residing at Bremen, went over this field with 
me and pointed out the locality of the main street as he 
saw it when he helped his brother to plough up the field 
many years ago. 

Capt. Lorenzo D. McLain's Evidence. 

He is a Ijoat builder and has resided at the Beach many 
years. One day, about three years ago he surprised me by 
bounding in through the doorway of the Paving Cottage 
and with a pleasant salutation said, as he made a solid 
landing on the platform with both feet at once, '* There! 
this is the first time I have ever been inside of this building 
since you put it up." 

After examining the relics and pavings he gave me the 
following information. " When I was a small boy, about 
1855 I think it was, I helped your uncle Jim plough this 
field. He had got a new No. 8 plough and was going to 
plough his land deeper than he had been doing. He had 
Capt. Alfred Bradley (still living) and Willard Jones with 
two yoke of oxen, and my job was to hold down the plough 
beam and keep it clear. 



'* Every time we came 'round on this side of the field 
the plough would come up some ways in spite of all we 
could do and it appeared to slide along on something like 
a ledge, but we could not think a ledge would be so even. 

" At last he got out of patience and turning to me said 
'Jemes rice,' that was his swear expression; 'boy, go up 
to the barn and get a hoe and the crowbar and we will see 
what there is here.' Then we found this paving and where 
we first cleared it off it seemed to be laid in cement and we 
had to diof a Ions; time with the crowbar before we could 
get out the first stone." 

When we uncovered the larger stone paving I found it 
had the appearance of having been disturbed on the part 
now covered by the platform. I inquired of Capt. McLain 
about that. " O !" said he, " that is the work of the relic 
hunters. When uncle Jim first found this he opened quite 
a piece and loft it uncovered. One day I came along here 
and found that the relic hunters had dug out the smaller 
stones and taken them away ; then uncle Jim had to cover 
it up to save it." 

By examining the soil where the stone had been taken 
out I found brick, charcoal and other indications that the 
paving had been laid over ruins of some former structure 
as I have before found relics beneath stone-work that 
showed plainly that the last structure was erected over the 
ruins of some previous one. This goes to prove the his- 
tory of the place stating that it has been repeatedly built 
up and destroyed. 

Mrs. Everett Lewis told me of indications of cellars, a 
fireplace, etc., found alongside this paving many j'^ears 
ago. 

David Chamberlain, Esq., of this town, an aged gentle- 
man now residing at Round Pond, Maine, pointed out a 



spot near the road and on a line with the paving now 
uncovered, where he uncovered a portion of the cobbles in 
1869, to exhibit to the Members of the Maine Historical 
Society. Said he, "I uncovered a piece there in the 
morning thirty feet long and before night every stone was 
taken away." 

Capt. Joseph B. Fitch of Chicago who used to trade 
here, visited the place a few years ago and kindly went 
with me over the old paved streets leading out to the 
burying-ground and pointed out the spots where, when a 
boy, he used to pick raspberries from bushes that grew up 
beside the curbstones of the street which were afterward 
hauled away to the river bank. 

Mr. Nathan Goold of Portland informed me that he 
visited Pemaquid about twenty-five years ago and Capt. 
Patrick Tukey showed him pavings on that street and also 
between the cellars. Said he, " I think those people must 
have been paving cranks to have paved their streets and 
between their houses too." 

In the testimony given by Mr. Henry Varley in the 
account of the celebration given here in 1871, there were 
three points left unsatisfactory to me, in his statement 
that, "I was eno-asjed with other men more than one week 
in digging up the pavement of one street." 

That account failed to locate the street, give the num- 
ber of men employed or tell what they did with the paving 
stone. One day Capt. Patrick Tukey of Long Cove came 
here to look over the ruins with me and when standing 
upon the old Rock and gazing over the field he remarked, 
* ' I used to w^ork on this place many years ago for Capt. 
Nichols." 

I inquired " Did you ever see any one digging up any 
of the paved streets here?" "Oh! yes I remember that 



10 

Mr. Varley dug up one that ran from the shore to the 

burying-ground." 

"How many men did he have employed with him?" 

"Well, I can't just remember but three ov four I should 

say." 

" What did they do with the stone, Captain?" 

" Well they had a cart and oxen and after they dug 

them up with their pickaxes and crowbars they put them in 

the cart and hauled them to the shore and dumped them 

over the bank." 

I was pleased to obtain this statement because it gave 
more definite information and confirmed my idea that it 
must have been a street with a steep grade where the soil 
had not gathered over it sufficiently deep to admit of culti- 
vation without reachino; it. 

I have heard it said that the first indications of paving 
seen by recent settlers was on a field of grain where during 
a drought, that above the paving suffered most, and being 
stunted plainly marked its outline. By that means we are 
able to plainly trace all the buried walls of the fort, and 
the cellars can be traced with much more accuracy when 
the grass is short in spring or soon after being mowed 
over. 

Mr. John Blaisdell who now resides near here on the 
old Col. Brackett estate, once showed me where Mr. Part- 
ridge ploughed over a cross street leading down from the 
main street toward the river, perhaps two-thirds of the dis- 
tance from the old ])arn to the burying-ground. *' I was 
driving the cattle" said he, "and the plough struck the 
edge of a flat stone and turned it out from amons; the rest, 
and uncle Jim made me stop the cattle and he went back 
and put the stone in its place again." 



11 

About three years ago I had an opportunity to ex- 
amine a portion of the main street pavings which were 
exposed well out toward the old cemetery when the field 
was ploughed. It was in quite good condition and paved 
with quite large cobbles. 

Beside the many places where I have examined it, I 
have been shown another place where it was found on the 
bank of a small sandy cove, near the present village, and 
close to the residence of Capt. George R. McLain and 
Llewellyn McLain. That found up the river will come 
under an account of a trip to the Pemaquid Falls, three 
miles up this noted winding river. 

I will close this chapter by a quotation from the report 
of the Maine Historical Society of August 25 and 26, 1869, 
by the Secretary, Mr. Edward Ballard : 

By the diligence of some members of the local committee, 
a portion of the paved street had been laid bare by the removal 
of the superincumbent soil, to the dejDth of eight to eighteen 
inches, over which the ploughshare had often been driven in 
former years. The regular arrangement of the beach-stones, the 
depression for the water course to the shore, the curbstones, the 
adjoining foundation-stones still in place, articles of household 
furniture and implements of the artisan, all these and other con- 
curring facts proved, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that a 
European community had dwelt on this spot, and had made this 
long street in imitation of what they had left in the mother 
land. 



PD 18 1 



f^'P-''^i- 






/^: 




/- % '^^^^ ^ 






T^*^^'^ , 






.^^ 







,\ 






-■?<^^C'^'^ 



•^^r 



"^^ 



,<^^ 



<' 



<A 



^ V . 



^'': 










."^ 






1-1 -^--o^ 



0' 
■a? -^ ^ * 



^'- -ov*' 



^„ 



^o 

n- 






i-' » 



V-*..-- 







O 'o . . * A. <^^ 



'/?;. 



DOBBS BROS. 

IIBRARV BINOINQ 



ST. AUGUSTINE 
/^^v FLA. 



v 






^' 






^^ :r 



'^ 



V> -o . . < A. -* 






U^ 



